Russell DeCarle is best known as bassist for ’90s Canadian county icons Prairie Oyster, but strummed an acoustic guitar and showed his blues and jazzy sides at the Geomatic Attic, Sunday, March 24 for an engaged audience.
DeCarle, strumming acoustic guitar and singing lead vocals played for a good sized crowd with guitarist Steve Briggs and upright bassist Jeremy Holmes adding harmony vocals.
They complemented each other just about perfectly as Holmes had just caught a plane from Kelowna and joined them in Calgary before this show.
There wasn’t a lot of Prairie Oyster to be heard other than “Mean Streak,” which DeCarle rerecorded and expanded for his latest solo album “ The End of the Road” and a co write with Willie P Bennett “ Goodbye, So Long, Hello.” DeCarle told a story about writing the song with Bennett which gave him the confidence to write more story songs.
Most of the first set was music form his solo albums, though the trio added a few deeper classic country covers from Hank Snow ( I Don’t Hurt Anymore) and Marty Robbins (The Hand’s You’re holding Now) and Charlie Rich.
He played several songs from the new album including touching, jazzy highlight “ Take Away Your Blue” and “ The More You Live,” which came early in the show.
The receptive audience listened intently and applauded after each of Steve Briggs’ tasteful, rock tinged acoustic guitar solos and Holmes’ occasional upright bass solo.
They ended the first set with DeCarle yodelling on “Under the Big Blue Sky,” the title track of his 2010 solo album.
— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
